An outside look at filming a train scene: https://tinyurl.com/2c6rddjw

The “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” song, but for kids!: https://tinyurl.com/wf4dn44z

Worldwide telescope isn’t really a telescope, but it uses a suite of free and open source software and data sets that let’s you explore the wonders of space like a pro: https://tinyurl.com/jzwabyu4

A brilliant and somewhat creepy scarecrow: https://tinyurl.com/hjrwexr6

The inescapable horror of (fake) transition contact lenses!: https://tinyurl.com/fxjzruvu

The original, unaltered period photo into which actor Jack Nicholson was composited to create the iconic photograph seen in the final shots of The Shining: https://tinyurl.com/je4zd6xw

Don McLeish is a real life seahorse whisperer. “The saga of Lucy” is a great story with lots of photographs: https://tinyurl.com/36z2s8t6

This sounds so annoying, yet I kinda want one: https://tinyurl.com/cvctat9z

The lovely South Philippine dwarf kingfisher: https://tinyurl.com/3kx4jah3

Chefs of three different skill levels make Paella, and have their creations tested and analyzed by a food scientist: https://tinyurl.com/asvjpeke

100 mug handles in 100 days: https://tinyurl.com/3v559469

Follow two LGBTQ trailblazing couples­—Angelica and Jahaira and Luis and Ngoc—on their way to compete at the World Latin Dance Cup: https://tinyurl.com/9m2kjr47

This virtual group show of 27 women-identifying artists is curated by Philippa Adams, former director and curator of London’s Saatchi Gallery: https://tinyurl.com/bd4aza7d

A lovely/sad abandoned church in Russia: https://tinyurl.com/5y4d6ztu

Inflatable fashion by Feyfey Yufei Liu: https://tinyurl.com/a973sw46

The Kamenstein MKII World of Motion Carousel Kettle is a steam-driven kettle with cute horses that start spinning as your water is boiled: https://tinyurl.com/j3vp8prm

Lightograph is a new way to make still photos come alive by manipulating light: https://tinyurl.com/2f75h7jf

Another fun little interactive musical tool, but this time it’s designed like a Rubik’s Cube: https://tinyurl.com/y5yhvx37

Madehow is a website that lists all kinds of things in alphabetical order. All you have to do is click on a thing and you’ll get a complete rundown of how that thing is made: https://tinyurl.com/4jkudx5p

A small 3d model of the planet, on which you can visualise various data such as current wind or current patterns, or current temperature, or the charrningly-named ‘misery index’ which tracks the degree of economic distress felt by ‘regular’ people worldwide: https://tinyurl.com/54whybv2

The Mutoid Waste Company is a performance arts group founded in London. It started in the early 1980s, emerging from Frestonia’s ‘Car Breaker Gallery’. They are probably best known for their recycled art installations at Glastonbury Festival: https://tinyurl.com/7jbj6rh2

You never know when you might need a ginormous marker: https://tinyurl.com/feh5zbb4

Relax and enjoy a Katmai Natl. Park bear cam: https://tinyurl.com/t9m2vzz5

A short Tumblr thread of marble statues carved to look like they’re covered in sheer fabric (A couple pics are mildly NSFW): https://tinyurl.com/m8uzuxmt

Delightfully animated illustrations of moths and bugs by Vladimir Stankovic: https://tinyurl.com/k3h5yyuh

Ken Hermann has a love of Kolkata and the flower men at Malik Ghat Flower Market: https://tinyurl.com/5xvjxep2

Designer iris van Herpen debuts five amazing dresses made from up cycled ocean debris: https://tinyurl.com/y9nppedw

The strange flavor of Parthian Chicken from Ancient Rome: https://tinyurl.com/br2w3a2r

Marc Burckhardt paints wonderful scenes of from fables, myths, and imagination ((Click on the options under the Gallery Works label to see more paintings): https://tinyurl.com/5a77x3yv

Exploring an interesting phenomenon known as “choice blindness”: https://tinyurl.com/4cz48etp

A new kind of temporary tattoo that lasts up to a year: https://tinyurl.com/pdjmf3ze

Cool little gif showing the different gravities on each of our solar system’s main bodies: https://tinyurl.com/pbn8h63a

Volcanic sand blows across a frozen lake: https://tinyurl.com/wezh7u66

“Listen, we need to talk about wombats”: https://tinyurl.com/dkt324yh

A lovely website dedicated to tracking the seasonal migrations of various N. American species, using citizen reporting to gather data (I particularly like the “Maps” section): https://tinyurl.com/5y849fst

Great macro video of Ladybug larvae hatching (Contains brief shots of bug sex): https://tinyurl.com/t2zp8sw2

The band “chipmunks on 16 speed” does a range of rather creepy/moody/awesome covers: https://tinyurl.com/r77btht7

Feni is a rare liquor made from cashew fruit, and it’s produced only in Goa, India. While some brands are pushing to take feni to the mainstream, this family has survived by hand making small batches and selling locally: https://tinyurl.com/n6633trv

If you’ve seen posts about an ice cream place selling Mac & Cheese flavored ice cream, now you can make your own at home! Yay?: https://tinyurl.com/4v4ueyt2

Paste Magazine published a list of the 50 best dystopian movies. Some of the entries surprised me, and there are a few I’ve never even heard of: https://tinyurl.com/uf6za2v4

In 2020 people all over the u.S. started receiving packages of mystery seeds from China. One reporter decides to find out why: https://tinyurl.com/cmmpxmur

It’s a chair, but it’s a log!: https://tinyurl.com/54n2dz68

Kevin Parry shares how he made one of his optical illusion TikToks: https://tinyurl.com/fmw2nt4c

A rather interesting list of 50+ short films you can watch on YouTube (“The Birch” is one of my favorites): https://tinyurl.com/hruzx8t3

Some odd, amusing, and disturbing maps from the Atlas Of Prejudice by author Yanko Tsvetkov: https://tinyurl.com/44z3y4ep

Some lovely seashell sculptures to brighten your day: https://tinyurl.com/tykwvdb

The Order of the Good Death is a collective of professionals who want to help people understand that death is a natural part of life, and help them release their fears and misconceptions related to death, dying, and decay: https://tinyurl.com/3u7ussbe

An interesting look at how the pointy shoes trend in 1300s Europe affected the health and shape of people’s feet: https://tinyurl.com/5wrjhhe8

TIL there’s a plant that has no chlorophyl and looks like a candy cane: https://tinyurl.com/3hkzndye

The wonderful range of traditional masks from New Guinea: https://tinyurl.com/8dy2eww

The science of colored shadows: https://tinyurl.com/3ed37ejr

Ringheiligtum Pömmelte is a late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age henge monument from the late third millennium BC. The site was discovered in 1991 through aerial photography near the present-day village of Pömmelte in the district Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany: https://tinyurl.com/k77x5sw

The difference between a Tornado Warning and a Tornado Watch, clearly illustrated: https://tinyurl.com/ny4r3zd3

Check out the vegan menu at this upscale NYC restaurant: https://tinyurl.com/wkk5j4

The Huldremose woman is one of the best preserved bodies from Denmark’s prehistory. This Iron Age mummy from year 55 AD was naturally preserved in the Huldremose bog on Djursland, Denmark. Today, almost 2,000 years later, you can see her remains at the National Museum of Denmark: https://tinyurl.com/42upck39

That one time when the U.S. government thought it might be cool to build a new highway using nuclear bombs: https://tinyurl.com/67yb2sdv

If you’ve ever wanted to learn about needle felting, this 5 minute video for beginners is an excellent place to start: https://tinyurl.com/zmnayn4p

Artvee is a website with an enormous database of searchable, public-domain classical art: https://artvee.com/

The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture of Eastern Europe was one of the oldest and longest-lived in the world: https://tinyurl.com/2navsadr

What an opera singer looks like in an MRI scanner: https://tinyurl.com/ed75788z

From 2017, a visual voyage across the US-Mexico border, stitched together from 200,000 satellite images: https://tinyurl.com/45krwmm4

How radical gardeners took back New York City: https://tinyurl.com/8bfk6tm2

Take a virtual tour through the Darth Vader House in Houston Texas: https://tinyurl.com/yppb8cr5

Just a few of the 331 entrants battling for the title of Cuprinol Shed of the Year: https://tinyurl.com/fvnmdway

Exploring a mysterious, stinky, and rather threatening mud puddle that moves under its own power: https://tinyurl.com/8ku9kvwt

The story of a wealthy American industrialist who died a horrible death due to a radioactive “health tonic.” This is why we have regulations now: https://tinyurl.com/v3a7vvkz

In 1899, six years before her death at age 70, Aboriginal Tasmanian Fanny Cochrane Smith made five wax cylinder recordings of traditional Aboriginal songs and language. They are the only recorded example of Tasmanian Aboriginal songs and the only recorded example of any Tasmanian Aboriginal language: https://tinyurl.com/9tys84t2

A Flickr page dedicated to people who love control panels: https://tinyurl.com/f593fht6

Pop artist James Ritzi’s gloriously bizarre building: https://tinyurl.com/j4mecdv7

A stop-motion video of the insides of fruits, as well as video of how the artist did it (He has WAY more patience than I do): https://tinyurl.com/h935ewm2

Rarely seen 1976 16mm footage from the Star Wars Archive shows actors Kenny Baker who played R2-D2 and Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO trying out their new costumes at Elstree Studios, while others were testing out unfinished droids for the film: https://tinyurl.com/47nrehx5

A 3D printed, 11 gear Mobius Strip: https://tinyurl.com/bxzfs9aa

If you’re in the market for a charming house with a resident 95-year-old tortoise, I have the perfect place for you!: https://tinyurl.com/sa6wb6mn

If you’ve ever been around mourning doves and wondered why they make that squeaky noise when they fly, here’s why: https://tinyurl.com/rvwh443k

I’d never heard of a fractal vise until now, but these things are rad!: https://tinyurl.com/ukrckaf3

A model of the Heidelberg Letterpress made entirely from cardboard and paper: https://tinyurl.com/49y4w3ny

A website dedicated to the history of Italian car design: https://tinyurl.com/dyy58bns

Man Khanna’s charming Claymen: https://tinyurl.com/tbrurc26

Wangechi Mutu is a Kenyan artist who crafts stunning sculptures (As well as amazing collages): https://tinyurl.com/2xn5dhr7

Wonderfully unique and creative ceramics from Jan Howlin: https://tinyurl.com/tvm59c

“Over the last month, I challenged 3D artists with the Alternate Realities CG challenge. I provided an animation for everyone to work from, and the results were stunning. 2,400 artists delivered, the top 100 were chosen for this montage”: https://tinyurl.com/fkuvy3mm

Hydraulic press videos as interpretive dance. I LOLed: https://tinyurl.com/2e3hhzjk

European ideas of African illiteracy are persistent, prejudiced and, as the story of Libyc script shows, entirely wrong: https://tinyurl.com/3w72d3zu

This guy makes AMAZING things with wire: https://tinyurl.com/csdkpy2

A fascinating spider web: https://tinyurl.com/4bdw83zk

The Vølfgang Twins demonstrate how they make their handbuilt Tagelharpa: https://tinyurl.com/ytbzrthu

Meet the Ringed caecilian, a super weird amphibian that looks like a worm: https://tinyurl.com/nt6vhnyk

Beautiful botanical gifs by digital artist Shane Griffin: https://tinyurl.com/3p8zjkw5

How one man built a simple-yet-brilliant water computer: https://tinyurl.com/tettw7ea

The lovely, flowing patterns of sheep, captured by a drone: https://tinyurl.com/tn9453zf (More videos on his website here: https://tinyurl.com/3c5w2vkj)

Artist Ali Gulec has a lovely gallery of freaky, funky, awesome skulls and skeletons: https://tinyurl.com/4nn37y36

Witness the birth of Kermit the Frog in Jim Henson’s live TV show, “Sam and Friends” (1955)“: https://tinyurl.com/2tyyammj

How HP Lovecraft pronounced “Cthulhu”: https://tinyurl.com/synxfyene

Bhangra fan Gurdeep Pandher of Yukon sends all of us a snowy dance of joy, hope and positivity: https://tinyurl.com/24ps7yxs

A delightful Twitter thread about the history of sewage management in London: https://tinyurl.com/ypsrdutd

The city of Baltimore places salt boxes around the town during winter, so that residents can sprinkle salt and keep walkways and driveways free of ice. Here’s a google map of all the salt boxes, many of which have been decorated by locals. Just click on an “Art Box” icon to see a photo of that box: https://tinyurl.com/rtj8f3uy

The US government, in setting standards for food quality based on appearance, also shaped our perception of what is acceptable to eat. This does not always line up with reality. But having set the standards, the government then had to deal with food producers who took shortcuts to make food appear better to the consumer. In some cases, the standards were not so much about quality as they were about protecting an industry: https://tinyurl.com/2enwrff3

Iceberger. Draw an iceberg and see how it will float: https://tinyurl.com/2ucfcc45

If you’ve never heard of a Patagonian crater agate, please enjoy: https://tinyurl.com/4ftnr6b4

These are the 23 varieties of native corn grown in the Eye of the Not A Cornfield Project: https://tinyurl.com/eeuyepjr

“Under Paris’ glittering Eiffel Tower, undocumented Senegalese migrants sell miniature souvenirs of the monument, to support their families back home. Far from their loved ones and hounded by the police, each day is a struggle through darkness in the City of Lights.”: https://tinyurl.com/sbsmjum9

Sapphire, a 1959 crime drama focuses on racism in London toward immigrants from the West Indies and explores the “underlying insecurities and fears of ordinary people” that exist towards another race: https://tinyurl.com/2s63htus

How cultural taboos can be tied to conservation: “But as the colonists, missionaries, and traders who followed in Cook’s footsteps violently suppressed Native people and knowledge, these protections frayed—and with them, the marine ecosystems that had supported Pacific cultures for millennia. In Hawai’i, after the U.S. government overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy and opened the waters to commercial fishing, moi and other fish populations plummeted. Similar scenarios unfolded across the world’s oceans”: https://tinyurl.com/49z4swdm

Yaupon is North America’s only known native caffeinated plant and once threatened the British East India Company. So why has the world forgotten about it?: https://tinyurl.com/5fwwd5fe

Tracking down the source photos for The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: https://tinyurl.com/434wb5ka

Another amazing selection of gorgeous macro insect photos (as well as other critters, and some lovely landscapes): https://tinyurl.com/3dpdj3w9

After it’s “discovery” by European explorers, the great pyramid of Chichén Itzá was rebuilt into the tourist attraction it is today: https://tinyurl.com/hnbkm8v2

I just learned that there’s a species of jumping spider that’s evolved to look like a moth caterpillar and IT’S SO FUZZY: https://tinyurl.com/9tahf4et

“On the day of Vesak, the biggest Buddhist festival in South and Southeast Asia, a monk carries out annual prayer rites at the Quantum Temple. Artifacts that belong to the past and foretell the future swirl overhead in a hyper-fictional topography made up of hill fort homes, geodesic monuments, haunting projections, and gigantic fish.”: https://tinyurl.com/8kf23ef9

Tim Flach produces beautiful portraits of all kinds of animals. This link is for the “Endangered” gallery, but he has a few other galleries as well: https://tinyurl.com/5c4s8snp

If you’re a fan of Yellow Submarine, Airbnb has one: https://tinyurl.com/y38kc2fh

Scenes from Silence of the Lambs, organized by color (Contains some gifs of gore, violence): https://tinyurl.com/3c6mcmzx

The tale of Rattlesnake Kate (and her infamous dress): https://tinyurl.com/87x4zc8x

“Angélica Dass’s photography challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. In this personal talk, hear about the inspiration behind her portrait project, Humanæ, and her pursuit to document humanity’s true colors rather than the untrue white, red, black and yellow associated with race”: https://tinyurl.com/4vay76x7

BBC 4 Radio has a fascinating podcast series where they talk about 100 different human-made objects, one at a time, from the British Museum Collection: https://tinyurl.com/8b4tv6ds

A little dive into the history of the private underground transportation used by U.S. members of Congress and their staffers: https://tinyurl.com/r75uvcj2

Is the most accurate sword fight in cinematic history?: https://tinyurl.com/2pp6yzrw

“At best, the story of American intelligence activities before and during the crisis is far from complete. One of the most extraordinary omissions to date is the central role played by Moody, a 38-year-old code-breaking whiz and the head of the NSA’s Cuba desk during the perilous fall of 1962. Even today her name is largely unknown outside the agency, and the details of her contributions to the nation’s security remain closely guarded.”: https://tinyurl.com/m7ext8tf

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto has acquired a colossal sculpture made from 100,000 pieces of Lego by the Ghanian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, who is known for his Afrofuturist reimaginings of Black histories built from Lego bricks: https://tinyurl.com/shv4emhh

This animated short explores the effects of time and change focusing on the the worlds seemingly never ending cycles. The deterioration of one is the foundation for another. This fact takes on new dimensions when the unexpected forces of nature clash with the existing structures of our civilization (contains a brief scene of a dead animal): https://tinyurl.com/3f6n872

The chef who turns Beef Wellington into art: https://tinyurl.com/79z6bx4m

The PX3 State of the World 2020 photo contest winners (You can click on each photo to read more about the subject): https://tinyurl.com/y2d32q73

If you’re feeling extra nerdy, learn about the math and science of shell patterns in the online book “The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells” by Hans Meinhardt. The site may pop up in Italian, but you can choose your preferred language. It’ll also ask you to allow cookies, which is annoying but, eh, every website is doing it: https://tinyurl.com/y4848m64

Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanidet: https://tinyurl.com/y3vcdqw3

NASA presents The Sinister Sounds of the Solar System: https://tinyurl.com/yxofk99b

The weird and fascinating phenomenon known as Auto-Activation Deficit leaves people nearly incapable of acting on their own, but fully capable when someone else prompts them to act: https://tinyurl.com/y5l23h9v

In 2005 archaeologists discovered a 30,000 year old burial in Austria containing three infants. Recently, DNA has shown that two of the infants were identical twins: https://tinyurl.com/y3bkpgkp

A beautifully immersive botanical installation by Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger: https://tinyurl.com/y6m5assl

Text-to-speech is a wonderful tool that translates written language into sound for the hearing impaired. It can also make Godzilla movies hilarious: https://tinyurl.com/yyju7nog

Have you ever seen a peatslide? Well, it might be a peatslide, or maybe the Republic of Ireland has figured out an extremely clever way of sneaking into Northern Ireland: https://tinyurl.com/y2caekn7

Gorgeous competitive gardening on wheels!: https://tinyurl.com/y2ovqux7

I’m not entirely sure how it works, but here’s an Apollo guidance computer simulator: https://tinyurl.com/y4ho8yzg

For the jazz fans. Alice Coltrane, also known by her adopted Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda or Turiya Alice Coltrane, was an American jazz musician and composer, and in her later years a swamini: https://tinyurl.com/y5vpsuan

A team of astrophysicists uses AI to figure out which clusters of stars merged to become our galaxy: https://tinyurl.com/yyy8d4xt

The striking prints of of the best known and most acclaimed Inuit artists of the last 50 years, Kenojuak Ashevak: https://tinyurl.com/yy277hmw

How conservators treat the 300 year old mattresses of Queen Caroline, wife of King George II: https://tinyurl.com/y2u5otxu

Ada Blackjack was an Inupiaq woman, born in rural Alaska, who survived for two years as a castaway after an ill-fated expedition: https://tinyurl.com/yab5db2j

If you’re a fan of model making, maybe you’ll enjoy watching an architect build a miniature version of the house from the movie Parasite: https://tinyurl.com/yxzrwm6f

Messy Messy Chic introduces us to eight real-life Black princesses: https://tinyurl.com/y4c7wh79

An amazing x-ray skull mural by Shok-1: https://tinyurl.com/y3uzet4m

A look inside Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, a Roman police vault of stolen art: https://tinyurl.com/yxjkdhwj

The science of how red sprites and blue jets form over thunderstorms: https://tinyurl.com/y76kzlyn

The AuthaGraph map is the most accurate world map you’ll ever see: https://tinyurl.com/y32b5w3x

Surreal art diagrams by Minjeong An: https://tinyurl.com/yxrgbukg

Bold and graphic linocut prints by Ieuan Edwards: https://tinyurl.com/y3v5zmlk

Not a pleasant topic at all, but for those interested in forensic reconstructions of disasters, here is an extremely well done breakdown of the tragic and widely televised August 4th explosion in Beirut: https://tinyurl.com/y525jxur

The art and craft of creating that stunning Dior pleating: https://tinyurl.com/y3vbouqr

Major Martin Manhoff spent more than two years in Moscow in the early 1950s as a US army attaché. His post off Red Square gave him an excellent vantage point to capture hundreds of images of everyday life in the U.S.S.R., as well as the only known independent footage of Stalin’s funeral procession: https://tinyurl.com/yagofmw8

We American 80s kids remember the birth of the phenomenon known as the Mall Tour, and how it brought us the wonder that was, and still remains, the one and only Tiffany: https://tinyurl.com/y44hcv9b

Whales are awesome, yes, but they can also kill you very easily without even meaning to: https://tinyurl.com/y3qzkj8q

“We as System Of A Down have just released new music for the first time in 15 years. The time to do this is now, as together, the four of us have something extremely important to say as a unified voice. These two songs, “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” both speak of a dire and serious war being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia”: https://tinyurl.com/yx9rgge6

A mission atop a Hawaiian volcano shows humans still have much to learn before they set foot on another world: https://tinyurl.com/y6rdxlz3

PTSD is not a new thing by any means, as shown by evidence from ancient Mesopotamia: https://tinyurl.com/yxwmv7n5

From pumpkin spice lattes to apple pies, ’tis the season for cinnamon. But, as linguist and historian Andrew Dalby makes clear, our obsession with the flavor today is nothing compared with Europeans’, who centuries ago went to extreme and horrific lengths in search of the spice: https://tinyurl.com/y2z84y8f

Firework cross sections are almost as beautiful as the final product ignited, depending on what you find “beautiful” of course: https://tinyurl.com/y3fo5a3p

Before Terry Gilliam joined the British comedy group Monty Python, he created odd animations for the UK series Do Not Adjust Your Set. Using old photographs and illustrations he also created some of the most memorable moments of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. In this video he explains how it was done: https://tinyurl.com/y5hcxgoe

Presenting the Shining Sunbeam Hummingbird. SO SHINY!: https://tinyurl.com/y42m5bsg

The weird and often horrifying randomness of “This Recipe Does Not Exist”: https://tinyurl.com/yxc96fc2

For his short film The Five-Minute Museum (2015), the UK director Paul Bush was given access to objects in some of the premier historical museums of Europe, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Bern Historical Museum in Switzerland. The resulting short video provides a whirlwind survey of human history, from arrowheads to plastic toys (Warning – there’s an almost strobe-like effect in parts of the video that may negatively affect some people): https://tinyurl.com/y3tfyxpf

Delightful and inviting prints by Heather Cox: https://tinyurl.com/y5zkzt2s

If you were just thinking “this year’s Thanksgiving would be WAY better if a I had an absurdly complex and labor-intensive turkey recipe!”, you’re in luck!: https://tinyurl.com/yyryn4t3

The late, great Janis Joplin: https://tinyurl.com/y4q7bw44

The chemistry that’s threatening the murals of Pompeii: https://tinyurl.com/y344fler

The Mahabharata is a tale for our times. The plot of the ancient Indian epic centres around corrupt politics, ill-behaved men and warfare. In this dark tale, things get worse and worse, until an era of unprecedented depravity, the Kali Yuga, dawns. According to the Mahabharata, we’re still living in the horrific Kali era, which will unleash new horrors on us until the world ends: https://tinyurl.com/yyy5dhvk

The encompassing art of sound: https://tinyurl.com/y3pugxfv

This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really enjoyed this video of various professionals talking about their work with DNA in the field of Archaeology. It reminds me of being back in school when I was working toward my Archaeology degree: https://tinyurl.com/y4qqqtfq

All Things Fall – A hypnotic 3D printed zoetrope by Mat Collishaw: https://tinyurl.com/oau773t

The Forth and Bargy dialect, also known as Yola, is an extinct Anglic language once spoken in the baronies of Forth and Bargy in County Wexford, Ireland. It is thought to have evolved from Middle English, which was brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion, beginning in 1169: https://tinyurl.com/y3q325c5

The Greek, Roman, Irish, Slavic, Baltic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Hindu sky-father gods are (probably) all connected, and descended from an ancient sky-father god worshiped 6000 years ago: https://tinyurl.com/y6p8nwk6

The otherworldly art of Marc Potts (some pieces are mildly NSFW): https://tinyurl.com/y4eog45l

Ah yes, those bygone glory days before building codes existed: https://tinyurl.com/yxr4fp5c

Marzhan Kapsamat plays the dombra in Lake Köbeituz: https://tinyurl.com/yy55p5js

“When Kids Ran the World: A Forgotten History of the Junior Republic Movement”: https://tinyurl.com/y5rxp7ss

The Japanese dog that protects humans and bears: https://tinyurl.com/y5kcgynb

Obviously this type of pine needle isn’t available everywhere, but if you live in a region where these trees grow, how about learning to make pine needle baskets in between Zoom meetings. Or during Zoom meetings, since likely as not the meeting could have been an email: https://tinyurl.com/y4zw695e

So…..what IS a hole?: https://tinyurl.com/y535voyj

Counting all the deaths in the Sharknado franchise (Includes gore, obviously): https://tinyurl.com/yyutbjuw

You may have seen the TikTok videos where comedian Christian Hull tries to guess the color of the paint that’s being mixed. Well now you can test your own color-guessing skills with this new video game: https://tinyurl.com/yx97k4b5

“After a prank Facebook event goes viral, thousands flock to the disappearing town of Rachel, Nevada — twenty-seven miles north of Area 51 — seeking knowledge, thrills, and common ground. Against the brutal backdrop of the American desert, hopes, doubts, beliefs, and real experiences are related in testimony from locals and travelers alike”: https://tinyurl.com/y4s9lm4x

Slap-sole shoes were developed in the early 1600’s as a means to protect the shoe from sinking into the ground: https://tinyurl.com/y6ces6uo

“Meet the Customer Service Reps for Disney and Airbnb Who Have to Pay to Talk to You”: https://tinyurl.com/y5cfkutp

The Slow Mo Guys take on pinball machines: https://tinyurl.com/y3v5xhkc

With planning for manned and unmanned missions to the Moon, Mars, and many asteroids underway, engineers are using numerical simulations to understand how spacecraft thrusters interact with planetary surfaces: https://tinyurl.com/y4mgx9v6

Do you love maps full of data you never knew you needed? ENJOY!: https://tinyurl.com/gozb8dt

An appaloosa with “peacock spots”: https://tinyurl.com/y3aqrwou

Turns out that the platypus is one of only three fur-bearing species who exhibit biofluorescence (this link has a cool pic of the glowiness): https://tinyurl.com/yyxxsk4j

The geometry of ballet: https://tinyurl.com/ycb9dlna

The technology that’s replacing the green screen: https://tinyurl.com/y4ew73tv

If you like spooky comics, Dora Mitchell shares her in-progress comic about a youngster in a very strange little town: https://tinyurl.com/y6kprkh5

Take a break and play with this origami simulator (Make sure to try out the options under the “Examples” tab): https://tinyurl.com/yyyd4wun

Dark & dreamy illustrations by Rovina Cai: https://tinyurl.com/y6zag7jc

(Slightly NSFW depending on the workplace) Amazing body painting/SFX art by Amazing Studio JUR: https://tinyurl.com/yxed8h4x

“Free Tibet is at the forefront of a global campaign to save Larung Gar, the largest centre for the study of Tibetan Buddhism anywhere in the world. Thousands of monks and nuns are being forcibly evicted from the site as their homes are demolished behind them”: https://tinyurl.com/y2rek48d

A digital library of cocktail recipes dating from as far back as 1753: https://tinyurl.com/yy2zp92v

An up-close look at the unexpectedly lovely journey of the western toad tadpole: https://tinyurl.com/yyfl87co

The mystery of the “Mostly Harmless” hiker: https://tinyurl.com/y65ywxl7

A new Amazon patent describes a poetic way to deal with toxicity in online games: https://tinyurl.com/y4pgfkbd

The bewitching self portraits of South African artist Zanele Muholi: https://tinyurl.com/y48f6rj9

“In this dazzling short animation by the Brothers Quay, learn about the illusionistic technique known as anamorphosis, in which a hidden image only becomes visible when viewed from a different angle or in a curved mirror”: https://tinyurl.com/y3xzskwj

Breaking down why The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” is so great: https://tinyurl.com/y6okyqjo

The colorful science of jewel beetles: https://tinyurl.com/y2c8np8a

“Artist Roma Durov captures contemporary Russia on a patchwork canvas, depicting the sordid and the silly side-by-side. Otherwise known as 9cyka, Durov paints scenes of police injustice, abuse, and overbearing orthodoxy with the striking naivety of a child sticking out his tongue to those in charge”: https://tinyurl.com/y5e6m5fl

Born in 1973 in Osaka, Tanabe Chiku’unsai is a bamboo artist and craftsman that has been carrying on a family legacy that spans 4 generations: https://tinyurl.com/y398bcxd

“A war pilot crash-lands through his apartment window. When his wife returns from work, she discovers that her husband’s face has been replaced by an airplane turbine. He’s also fallen in love with their kitchen ceiling fan. To save their faltering marriage, his wife decides she will no longer let her humanity get in the way of love”: https://tinyurl.com/y3d8w2vv

After a decade of hair growth, artist Tadas Maksimovas decided to collaborate with violinist Eimantas Belickas to produce an experimental music piece, using a violin strung with his own hair, and it actually sounds pretty good: https://tinyurl.com/yyo8nsr9

So tonight I was fiddling around with various editing apps, as I often do when I’m having trouble getting to sleep, and I ended up making an image I’m rather pleased with:

I thought I’d share how I created this image, in case anyone out there is interested in learning about some new free apps and/or new techniques to try.

So first I started with this photo:

Yup, just a random snapshot of an oil slick in a wet parking lot.

Step 1: I loaded the image into Snapseed. This is my usual go-to app for basic photo editing. It has some nice filters and tools and it’s fairly user-friendly if you’re new to editing apps.

For starters I only adjusted the contrast and saturation to make the colors pop a bit more:

Step 2: I uploaded the new image into PicsArt. This app kind of wants to be a mini-photoshop, but I’m not terribly wowed by it. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot of tools that some people absolutely love and are quite handy, there just aren’t a lot of tools that do anything I’d ever want. But hey, I’ve uploaded apps before just to use one filter or effect, nothing wrong with that.

So anyway, I went to the “Distort” menu and used “Twirl” to turn the image into a spiral:

I used the Twirl tool three separate times until I got just the right amount of spiral (when you’re using the tool there’s a little gear icon you can poke, and that’ll show you the settings that adjust how the tool works)

Step 3: I went to one of the other filter menus in PicsArt, the “Lens Flare” menu. This is what I used to add the look of bright stars to the spiral (If you couldn’t tell by now, I was make a galaxy). When I was relatively happy with it, this is the image I had:

Step 4: Because I just wasn’t ready to quit playing yet (it’s a compulsion I’ve had since childhood: Obsessive Arting) I took a copy of the starry galaxy and loaded it into the Dreamscope app.

First I used the filter “Angel Hair” and wound up with this:

Step 5: I then ran the image through a filter (We’re still in the Dreamscope app) called Waves of Matsushima”. It’s a very effect-heavy filter that will add patterns of trees into the image, distort the fine details, and change the colors to mostly soft greens and beiges, but how your image ends up and how drastic the filter looks will totally depend on the image you started with. Here’s what I got:

Step 6: I wasn’t quite happy with the colors and all that beige blandness, so it took it back over to Snapseed and tinkered with the hue (The tool “Image Adjust) has a “warmth” setting that you can use to make the image cooler or warmer) and contrast a bit until I was happy.

And there you have it. From this…..

…..to this is in 6 weirdly random steps 🙂

I’ve always been fascinated by bones. They are truly works of biological sculpture. The strength and fragility, the shapes and structures, foramenae and fossa, sutures and epiphyses, I love them all.

I got rear-ended in traffic the other day and am stuck at home with a very painful injured neck, so playing with photos of the deer skull I just finished cleaning has been a welcome distraction. Enjoy!

In addition to my photography and digital art, I also make all kinds of sculptures and jewelry. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve finished four pieces that I really love and just added to my Etsy store. I might never earn a living making art, but I could never stop making. Art is just in my blood, I’d be lost without it 🙂

Images I’ve made and remade and made again. When words fail me I always have art and imagery.

I have a good dozen Japanese maples and last week they were in full autumn rainbow mode ❤

Hi everyone. Sorry I’ve been quiet lately and haven’t responded to comments yet, but a couple of weeks ago I had a severe mental breakdown related to my depression/anxiety/trauma issues, bad enough that I almost had to be hospitalized, so all I’ve really been doing since then is adjusting to new medication (It’s a non-SSRI antidepressant since I figured out a few years ago that SSRIs make my symptoms significantly worse, which is why I’ve stayed away from meds for the last several years) and just generally giving myself time to relax and let myself be calm and focus on getting stable and healthier.

Anyway, I haven’t felt very inspired during the last few weeks but I did start playing around with overlays. I took a basic line drawing of a tree and turned it into a multicolored pattern in photoshop, then put various pictures over the top of it with a double exposure app I have in my phone and got some nice results. A friend of mine who’s a neuroscientist said the patterns of branches look like neural connections, and so the Neuron Series was born.

There are times when the depression goes to a weird place, a place I can’t put into words, but there’s a kind of restless manic energy (No, I’m not bipolar) and because of my spine injury I can’t release the energy through dance or exercise, so I release it through weird self portraits. And so here I am with a baggie of googly eyes and an old tube of fake eyelash glue, and this is the result. I don’t know what I’ve expressed, but I do feel better. And now i have survived another day without self-harm or sobbing or rocking in the corner. Whatever it takes to make it through.

Even if what it takes is googly eyes

As a lifelong sufferer of severe depression and anxiety, joy is a rare and precious thing, happy moments so few and far between. Last week I was able to scrape together a few dollars to drive about 6 hours south to one of my favorite places: Summer Lake Hot Springs. It’s a little place not far from the tiny town of Paisley, along one of the popular routes to Burning Man. I’ve always loved it there, there’s something magical and soothing about that place, and the couple of days i stayed there were the most calm, the closest to happiness, that I have felt in so very long.

Who doesn’t love waking up to horses calmly mowing the grass

The remains of a meditation maze that a friend of mine built several years ago. it’s still lovely as it’s slowly reclaimed by the desert scrub

The view from inside the Barn. it’s a lovely, creaky old structure with sofas and art, a calm place to rest in the shade, or catch some sleep if you’re a traveler without a tent to shelter in

Inside the Barn

I’ve always been a sucker for rusty old farm equipment

I’d made a white gown that I had planned to wear at Burning Man, but since I wasn’t able to go, I brought it to Summer Lake with me. I don’t have many photos that show me feeling at ease, at peace, alive and beautiful, but this is one of them.

And a rainbow to send me off as I reluctantly made my way home

Coming back to my house in Washington was so very hard. To leave one of the few places where I feel free from my demons, just to return to a place that is so full of them I can barely breathe. The bad times help you appreciate how wonderful the good times are, but it feels like the good is so brief, and the bad is so endless.

When I finally came home I had a breakdown, a bad one. It almost got to the point where I needed to be hospitalized, but a few friends sprang into action after I made a frantic plea on social media and one of them called my therapist, since I literally wasn’t capable, and he called me and talked me down just enough for me to regain a grip. It’s funny, and sad, how sometimes all we need is one person, just one, to go a little way out of their way to let us know that we are cared about. Just one. And it’s even more sad to know that there are people who don’t even have one. That’s not how it should be. Ever.

Hello, I’ve missed you all!! I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, my life over the last few months has been utterly consumed with working on my art installation for Burning Man (pics to come) and various health issues. I’ll show you our progress on Zooplankton soon, but in the meantime here’s the results from a fun new app I’ve been playing with: Dreamscope

I can’t fully explain why, but there’s the adorable little frog, a strong, hard-working hand, a challenging friendship, and a lot of details and emotions and back-story that are mine alone and could not be shared even if I wanted to. But I love everything about this simple yet so multi-layed photo.

Those of you who are Dune fans like me (I still have my 1987 edition of the Dune Encyclopedia. Yep, you’re jealous 😉 ) will remember the “Litany Against Fear” that Paul used to face his fears.

I have a fantastic therapist now, he’s the best I’ve ever seen (and man I have met some stinkers), and he gives homework assignments each week, each with a purpose, each tailored to the client, and this last session he gave me an assignment to create my own Litany Against Fear, because he knows that most of my life I have allowed myself to be paralyzed by all the worst-case scenarios in my head, all the horrible what-ifs, freaking myself out with made up fear to the point where I can’t do anything. Some of you probably understand that habit all too well.

So here is my Litany Against Fear, created, of course, as both message and art (I love that he knows to incorporate art into my homework whenever possible)

Things are still challenging for me, but I did finally find a doctor and am on my way to getting decent physical health care, and I have a fantastic therapist who’s helping with the mental and emotional issues, as well as a circle of truly amazing friends. I hope I never experience a world without friends.

Every so often some burner friends and I gather for Jerk Church. It’s a Burning Man tradition that’s spread around the country, where we wear silly outfits and drink whiskey and sing raunchy songs and generally act like fools.

No, I can’t explain why there was a shark in the back yard, but I’m
so glad there was. Ah, my friends…..

My physical health has been steadily declining over the past few years, and in the last few months I’ve reached the point where I’m often unable to leave the house at all, and so not many new photos lately.

I do miss posting, though, my love of images is certainly not fading, so I found a few older images to play with a bit. It did cheer me up, and I hope at least one or two add a little goodness to your day 🙂

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday, however you may celebrate, and good things to come in the new year.

Woo, I finally got out of the house!! I saw on Facebook yesterday someone post a picture of this wonderful tree and I just had to go find it. Fortunately I have a couple of friends who know right where it is and gave me directions when I posted the photo, so today I braved the big, bright world and after some wandering I found it. It’s just another tree, like so many others, along the street in a relatively quiet neighborhood in NE Portland, but instead of leaves it’s covered in wishes.

I don’t know who first started this, but I think more people should do things like this. Someone leaves a bag of paper tags and a pen at the base of the tree and anyone with a wish can come and hang it up. What a beautiful idea, what a beautiful gift ❤